Does Familiarity with School Increase Adjustment?

Abstract

The present study investigated the impact of familiarity with the school setting on kindergarten children's expectations of school and on adjustment of first graders to the school setting. The assumptions were that familiarity with the school setting would lead to a greater amount of valid information about school, which would decrease the anxiety of kindergarten children's role expectations of school. Previous exposure to the school setting would also lead to better adjustment in the first grade. Subjects were nineteen kindergarten children and twenty first graders from infant-school settings, and thirty-three kindergarten children and twenty-six first graders from regular educational settings, the sexes being evenly represented. All subjects came from middle socio-economic backgrounds. On the whole, the results corroborated the assumptions.